New Poll Finds Many Americans Think Marijuana Use Is Punished Too Harshly

With the handling of crime among the issues in this year’s presidential campaign, a new survey examines voters’ attitudes on various aspects of the criminal justice system including marijuana.

The poll by YouGov, released last week, found that 50 percent of Americans said that marijuana use was punished too harshly as opposed to 16 percent who said it was punished too leniently.  Those who felt punishment was too harsh included 62 percent of Democrats , 53 percent of independents and 32 percent of Republicans.  31 percent of Republicans feel marijuana use is handled too leniently, compared to 7 percent of Democrats.   Among the 30 types of crimes people were asked about, only cannabis use and prostitution were considered to receive overly harsh punishments.

Most Americans said other drug-related crimes such as trafficking and fentanyl use were being treated too leniently.

The poll was conducted online among 2,232 U.S. adult citizens on two separate surveys from July 31 – August 4, 2024 and August 6 – 9, 2024.

The results also showed that 72 percent of respondents said they support “expunging marijuana-related convictions for non-violent offenders,” while just 16 percent said they oppose the reform.  84 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Republicans are in favor of the expungements.

The poll follows the recent recommendation by the Drug Enforcement Administration categorizing marijuana as a Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act instead of its current Schedule 1 classification, which subjects it to the same strict restrictions as narcotics such as heroin, methamphetamines and LSD.  91 percent of the nearly 43,000 public comments received on the proposal supported rescheduling or requested that the Biden administration remove marijuana entirely from the CSA.

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